I discovered some Inchelium Red garlic at a farmer's mkt here in Albuquerque, so I bought a couple of heads to plant. According to my research, it won a Rodale taste contest in 1990. And I noticed that many websites are already sold out. Some other stats:

Inchelium Red Garlic

Hailing from the Colville Indian Reservation in Inchelium, Washington, this garlic is a large and beautiful artichoke variety. The dense bulb, can have anywhere from 9-20 cloves and an outer bulb wrapper that is thick for the purpose of protecting the bulb. The flavor of the Inchelium Red is softly robust but not so strong as to be overwhelming; the flavor often sharpens in storage.

We love garlic and go through a lot of it, but I have to be honest and admit that I'm a total innocent when it comes to specific varieties. There's a local farm called Blue Moon that grows a very fine clove, but I've always attributed that to local production and freshness rather than varietal character or terroir!

Just like wines, different varieties of garlic have different characteristics. One characteristic of Inchelium Red is that it was expensive: $1.70 for two heads. But I figure by this time next year, I should have a good quantity of it in my garden.

We also love garlic and go through lots; we've found that the hard-necked varieties at farmers markets in the area are particularly tasty. Unfortunately, most of the time we buy different kinds of garlic, we're either buying from a self-service stand (where you put your money in a lock box on the honor system--yes, they still have them around here!) or from a young helper who doesn't know exactly what kind of garlic it is.

Larry - how do I plant garlic? Wait until it sprouts? Can I plant it now and harvest in spring?

Niki (Dayton OH) wrote:Larry - how do I plant garlic? Wait until it sprouts? Can I plant it now and harvest in spring?

I'd stick it in the ground now. Separate the head into cloves and plant root side down. Then just leave it alone until next year. Easy. I do the same thing with shallots. Buy a few, plant them, and you'll never have to buy shallots again.

If you really want to get into growing garlic, I highly recommend the folks at Filaree Farm, their website is http://www.filareefarm.com/. They've been my source for seed garlic for a long time - amazing variety. A good general reference on garlic - growing, the different types, some recipes - is The Great Garlic Book by Chester Aaron. As Larry says, it's not that complicated, although there are some subtleties to optimizing shelf life after harvest.

We rode our bikes to the Yellow Springs street fair on Saturday, and at the farmers market there was a gentleman with over 20 different garlic varieties. We bought about 7 kinds...Music, Asian Spice, Russian Red, Miechi, Siberian, and one other I can't recall at the moment. He had descriptions of the flavors, and we've been comparing the varieties in a number of preps. Really like the Music and Asian Spice so far. We'll be planting some of our favorites this weekend!